


this is happiness

by fuyuki_peridot



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Boys In Love, Fate & Destiny, Fluff, Love, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism, Nostalgia, Ocean, Sea God, True Love, romantic, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 10:24:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19788931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuyuki_peridot/pseuds/fuyuki_peridot
Summary: They meet the night the stars fall.Inside a spilling meteor shower, with the feeling of Minseok's hand in his carved into his memory forever more, Jongdae sits on the damp sand, breathing in the ocean breeze."The most important things don't need words," Minseok tells him.And after a ghost of a kiss, he was gone.//(Minseok is a spirit of the sea. Jongdae is just a young boy. Magic brings them together, and keeps them together.)





	this is happiness

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by kenshi yonezu's spirits of the sea

They meet the night the stars fall.

Inside a spilling meteor shower, with the feeling of Minseok's hand in his carved into his memory forever more, Jongdae sits on the damp sand, breathing in the ocean breeze.

"The most important things don't need words," Minseok tells him.

And after a ghost of a kiss, he is gone.

  


//

  


Just like all the other children, Jongdae loves the ocean.

He loves running along the shore and collecting shells and chasing seabirds till they fly off with an indignant squawk, and he loves wading in tide pools and picking up the little crabs and creatures. He spends every summer afternoon sitting on the sand, soaking in the warmth and breathing in the sea salt and tanning in its golden light.

Jongdae loves the sea, loves it deeply.

And the sea, it must know this, because he tells it so every single night, under a shimmering sky, where he stands on the shore so that the salty breeze can carry his message with it. Sometimes, he can hear it whispering back to him.

Baekhyun doesn’t believe him. “An ocean can’t talk,” he laughs.

“It can!” Jongdae insists, and it makes Baekhyun laugh harder.

“Even if it could, why would it talk to you,” he snorts, before splashing him with a handful of ocean water. “We’re kids!”

Jongdae supposes he’s right. If the beautiful and majestic sea could speak, it certainly wouldn’t be to a young boy like him. Perhaps she would speak to the sky, who is as lovely as she is.

But still, he loves the sea, loves it deeply. He always will, although it does not love him.

That night, Jongdae learns that he is wrong.

It’s a night like any other. He sits on the sand, damp and cool, underneath a shimmering sky. The ocean breeze is cold, almost too much so, but Jongdae doesn’t mind. As long as he can hear the sea, feel it, he is happy.

A huge wave is forming, he notices, out in the dark water. It’s cresting, lit up by the bioluminescent creatures that come out at night, and then it’s coming, sweeping him off his feet, carrying him far, far away, out to the center of the ocean and he’s falling, drowning, he can’t breathe, the very thing he loves is the one that will kill him—

A hand wraps around his wrist.

It pulls him out and suddenly he’s gasping, floating, far away from the shore, bobbing on the surface of the water face-up, watching the shining stars come falling down.

“You’re okay,” a soft voice says, and when he turns his head, a blonde boy floats next to him. “Just breathe.”

He closes his eyes. He’s imagining this. He drowned and now he’s in heaven, floating in the sea and watching the stars fall. This is an angel he’s talking to.

When he opens them again, the boy is still there. Still watching him with wide, feline eyes, incredibly blue and deep, just like the sea. Exactly like the sea.

“Who are you?” he asks.

“Don't worry about it,” the boy smiles, before pointing to the sky. “Just enjoy the view. Make a wish, or something.”

“I wish to know who you are,” he says, and that makes the boy laugh, a sound that’s pretty and full of life, just like the sea. Exactly like the sea.

“Okay,” he grins. “I’m Minseok.”

“Minseok,” Jongdae repeats. “Thank you.”

“Of course, Jongdae,” he says, and he only has a moment to wonder how Minseok knew his name before the boy takes his hand, gently pries open his fingers.

“Here.” Minseok places something— a shell?— in his outstretched palm, and closes his fingers around it again. “Always keep it with you.”

“What is it?” he asks, and when he opens his hand, he sees that it is a shell, iridescent and shiny on the inside, smooth and white on the outside. It reflects the night sky, the falling stars.

“A blessing,” Minseok says, “from the sea.”

Jongdae turns to look at Minseok, at his bright eyes that reflect the night sky. The falling stars. “A blessing?”

“The sea loves you so, Jongdae,” he smiles.

The sea loves him? A young boy like him?

“Why?” he asks, but when he looks up from his shell, Minseok is already gone.

  


//

  


When Jongdae wakes, the shell is on his bedside table, where he left it yesterday night, after he stumbled home drenched and exhausted.

So— it wasn’t just a vivid dream.

He takes the shell into his hands, cradles it gently. It’s smooth, and— are those sea noises he hears? He holds it up to his ear, and yes, he hears it, the waves and the wind and the gulls and even the fish.

Jongdae grins up at his ceiling. _The sea loves you so, Jongdae_ , the boy— Minseok— had said.

Come to think of it— how did Minseok know his name?

Perhaps he’s a sea god. That would explain the hand, the hand that felt like an ocean current, strong and cool, and the blessing he’d been given. A blessing from the sea, a blessing that he’s always supposed to keep.

And keep it he will.

Jongdae gets a black thread from his mother’s sewing box, and gently, carefully, pokes a tiny hole near the base of the shell. He threads it through and knots it once, twice, three times, just to be careful. He wouldn’t want to lose the blessing of the sea, after all.

He finds out, when he puts it around his neck, that he made his thread too long. Rather than resting over his heart, it hangs low on his belly, but that’s okay. He’ll grow into it. He’ll keep it with him, for as long as he lives.

  


//

  


That morning, Jongdae learns that there is no sea god named Minseok. His mother told him so, scorned him for taking a shell from the beach— she didn’t believe that it was a gift from some godly force. And Baekhyun, as usual, laughed at him. “People tell me I have a wild imagination,” he snorts, “but they obviously haven’t met you.”

But Jongdae doesn’t care. He knows it’s real. He knows that he met a god of the sea, a spirit of the sea, and that he received a gift, a blessing, from him.

He knows that he loves the sea, and the sea loves him back.

  


//

  


Jongdae carries on the rest of his childhood and adolescence in this seaside town, soaking up the sun on sea-dampened sand and trading messages with the ocean. He doesn’t chase the birds anymore, but he does continue to wade in the tide pools and smile down at the little crabs and creatures.

He doesn’t forget about that night, the night the stars fell and he met a sea god and received a blessing from the sea. He does think about it every day, what the sky and stars looked like and what Minseok looked like and what his shell looked like.

It hasn’t changed much. The shell, it’s no longer pure white like it was when it was given to him, but that’s simply because of age. Jongdae’s nineteen, now, and the shell is ten years old. Of course it would be a little dirtied, a little worn down. Not like he doesn’t try to clean it or protect it— maybe the magic is just wearing off.

He still wears it around his neck everyday, almost twenty-four seven. He was right all those years ago— he grew into it, and now, standing at five-foot-eight, the shell rests right above his heart. So— maybe there is magic in the shell, after all.

Or it could be fate, he thinks, because here he is, ten years later, still on the same shore with the same sand and the same sea. Speaking the same sweet words to the same salted breeze.

He has changed, of course he has. He’s lost a mother and his best friend moved away years ago. He knows loss, now.

He knows loss and loneliness and change and yet the sea remains, lovely and exactly the same, all these years later. The sea remains, gives him the same comfort it did all his life, even now.

Even now, as he stands on the shore, alone, watching the sea in all her majesty brings a small smile to his lips.

She looks the same. Everything does. He sits on the sand again, still damp and cool, underneath a still shimmering sky. The ocean breeze is cold. Almost too much so, but Jongdae doesn’t mind. He’s sat here countless times, in both heat and cold. As long as he can hear the sea, feel it, he is happy.

Jongdae takes the shell into his hands and rubs it softly. It’s smooth, worn down by his rubbing. Still shiny, shiny enough to reflect the shimmering sky and the falling stars.

It really is fate, or magic, or something like that, to bring him here, on a night the stars are falling, just like it was when he met Minseok.

Minseok, the beautiful boy who blessed him with the sea’s love. He hasn’t forgotten about Minseok for a single day, either, still remembers his blonde hair and deep blue eyes and porcelain skin, his soft and soothing voice and lively laugh.

And for a second, just for a second, he has to wonder— why did Minseok give him this shell, this blessing? Was it to guide him back here, so they can meet again? But what would a sea god want to do with a boy, a young boy like him, anyways? A spirit of the sea would be better off with a sun deity, or a moon god, a spirit of the sky.

Even so, Jongdae loves the sea, loves it deeply.

“Then that’s enough,” someone says. “Your emotions are enough.”

Jongdae turns to his right and sees Minseok, facing the sea as well. He looks exactly the same as he did the night the stars fell, the way they are now. Blonde hair and deep blue eyes and porcelain skin. A soft and soothing voice.

“Enough for what?” he asks.

“For the sea,” he smiles. “The sea loves you so, Jongdae.”

That. He remembers that, too.

“It does, doesn’t it,” he says, watching the sea crest and fall. “Why?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he laughs, and yes, it’s still the same lively laugh. He turns to face Jongdae with a smile, and it’s as pretty and lovely as the rest of him is, as pretty and lovely as the sea. “Want to go for a dive?”

“A dive? I— I don’t have the equipment or training to—”

“Don’t worry about it,” he repeats, before taking Jongdae’s hand. His hand is warm. “You still have the shell, right?”

Jongdae automatically takes the shell into his left hand, even though he knows it’s still there. “Yes.”

“Good,” Minseok says, with a warm smile to match. “Then let’s swim.”

And they dive into the sea.

It’s a rush of warm currents and a storm of bubbles all around him, and he thinks he might feel a fin brushing his arm—

“Open your eyes,” Minseok laughs, and after the shock of realizing he can hear clearly underwater, he does open his eyes.

And he’s stunned by what he sees.

The water is bright and clear, and countless fishes swim around and in between them. There’s small, colorful ones, and big— is that a whale?

“Whale shark,” Minseok says, pointing at it. It’s so massive, Jongdae is stunned.

“You can speak, you know,” he laughs. “That’s what the shell is for.”

Jongdae opens his mouth and breathes out bubbles, then draws breath again as effortlessly as he were on land. Come to think of it, he can’t feel the pressure either.

“You haven’t taken a dive with your shell before?” Minseok asks, and he’s clearly bewildered, as if any sane person would try to go purposefully drowning themselves after they’d almost drowned as a child.

“No,” he returns. “I was scared to lose it.”

“The shell is a blessing.” He lets go of Jongdae’s hand to spin around, hands out and open in a _look around us_ type of gesture. “As long as you are in her realm, the sea will protect you.”

“Incredible,” he breathes out. He spins around as well, watches the glowing creatures dive deeper, watches the colorful ones swarm around him. He reaches out and one of them, a blue-and-white striped fish, comes to nuzzle up to his hand. Must be another power from the shell.

“Now,” Minseok grins, “let’s dive.”

He takes Minseok’s outstretched hand in his right again, takes the shell in his left, and follows Minseok as he dives down, deep deep down below the surface, where the light starts to fade.

“Look around,” he smiles, and now both his hands are laced with Minseok’s. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It is,” he says, but in all honesty, he’s more focused on the god in front of him, on the way his blonde hair halos around his pretty face, on the way his deep eyes seem to glow as he watches the flow of the water around them. “But why are you showing _me_? I’ve always wondered…”

Minseok turns back to look at him. “Always wondered…?”

“Why me?” He lets go of Minseok’s hands to gesture at himself. “A sea god like you— why have you been protecting and talking to me?” Because he understands, now, that everytime he spoke to the sea and it spoke back, it was Minseok. It was Minseok, always bringing him comfort and happiness. It was always Minseok. “A sea god like you… you should be with a sky god, or something.”

And surprisingly, Minseok laughs and cups Jongdae’s face. He realizes with a start that they’re now floating horizontally, like they're laying on their stomachs instead of flying through the sea.

“Jongdae,” Minseok whispers, like it’s a secret that only the two of them will share. “If I’m the sea, then you're the sun.”

Jongdae laughs at that, a flurry of bubbles and noise, and when it clears, Minseok is kissing him soft and sweet and gentle. He tastes of the sea and of happiness, of love and of comfort.

They surface with a little _pop_ and a lot of dignified laughter (Minseok) and embarrassing giggles (Jongdae), hands still intertwined, the shell floating between them. Above them, the stars are still falling.

“Do you know why, now?” Minseok asks.

Jongdae takes in the falling stars and shimmering sky, the small waves and gentle breeze, then looks back at Minseok’s pretty face. And he’s not sure he can put it into words, exactly, but what he’s sure of is that they were meant to meet again. They are meant to be.

“Yes,” he smiles.

Minseok’s smile gets wider, and Jongdae learns that he has the sweetest smile that could ever grace the world. “Good. Let’s get back to the shore.”

It turns out that they swam far, far out. A swim this far would exhaust him, but with Minseok by his side and the shell around his neck, he flies through the sea and sky with the same grace Minseok possesses. He’s like a dolphin, cutting through the waves, like a gull, soaring through the air. The very world seems to part around him, make way for him as he glides through.

“We met on a night like this,” Jongdae laughs. “Ten years ago.”

“We did,” Minseok agrees. “Just like this.”

Minseok sits down on the sand, and Jongdae sits next to him. “Minseok,” Jongdae starts, “Thank you. For all of this, for showing me the magic of the sea.”

“And thank you for loving the sea,” Minseok smiles.

He takes a deep breath, puts all of his emotions and fears and hopes and dreams into his next three words. “I lo—”

"The most important things don't need words," Minseok tells him.

“I— what?”

“They don’t,” he laughs, and then lets go of Jongdae’s hands to spread his arms in another _look_ _around us_ gesture. “Just know that this is happiness.”

The gentle waves and salted breeze, the soft sand and shimmering sky. The falling stars. All of it, it’s a gift from the summer days, a gift from the sea. It’s happiness.

He looks back at Minseok when he takes his hand again. Inside a spilling meteor shower, with the feeling of Minseok's hand in his carved into his memory forever more, Jongdae sits on the damp sand, breathing in the ocean breeze.

This is happiness. It is magic, and it is happiness, and it is love.

“Let’s meet again,” Minseok whispers to him.

“On this same shore,” Jongdae whispers back.

And after a ghost of a kiss, he is gone.


End file.
